In the field of antifungal agents, a number of compounds have already come into practical use as pharmaceuticals. However, their effects on various harmful strains are not always satisfactory, and emergence of strains resistant to these pharmaceuticals, especially to azole type antifungal agents in wide use, has become a serious clinical problem. Therefore, development of pharmaceuticals effective against these harmful strains and resistant strains is demanded.
JP-A-6-157582, J. Antibiotics, vol. 48, pp.1171-1172 (1995) and Nat. Prod. Lett., vol. 7, pp.309-316 (1995) disclose structural analogues of the compounds of the present invention which show excellent antifungal action, but neither disclose nor suggest anything specific about the compounds of the present invention.
Further, the present inventors have recently found that compounds containing the compounds disclosed by the above-mentioned references and azole type antifungal agents have excellent antifungal action (PCT/JP96/00353).
However, development of even more excellent antifungal agents is still demanded.